


Ulysses Four

by silverstardust



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Astronauts, Humanstuck, Mermaids, Outer Space, Sirens, Space Sirens, Space mermaids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 02:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11796396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverstardust/pseuds/silverstardust
Summary: Space mermaids.You expected aliens, or being completely alone in space with your brother. But no. MOTHERFUCKING SPACE MERMAIDS. Kankri is staring with his face smushed against the window in pure, child-like awe. Pinkie (as you've dubbed her) smiles an eerily shark like grin and waves, before pressing a kiss to the glass and giggling.Your attention is brought back to the blaring sirens. You glance at the computers wailing at you for a moment..Your engines are dead.





	Ulysses Four

You have always wanted to go to space.

  


  


Your great-times-how-many-ever-grandmother worked on NASA code to send rockets into space. Your great-grandfather was a renowned astronomer. Your dad took you and your brother out for star watching for weeks every summer. Space always fascinated the both of you and you two spent every spare moments you had either stargazing or researching more about space, everything you two could get your hands on. You took all the astronomy classes you could in high school, and worked towards all the astronomy degrees you could afford in colleges. The second you were both old enough, you both volunteered for NASA.

  


Today, the first of June, 2093, the two of you are going to space.

  


Your ship is the Ulysses 4, part of the Ulysses Missions series to Mars. You'll be setting down on Mars, to collect data about the planet to- hopefully- begin preparations for human settlements. You're also- hopefully- going to retrieve Curiosity, the Mars Rover from your dad's childhood. It's not an official part of your mission, but it's no longer needed, and you and Kankri both believe that it would be a pretty goddamn cool birthday present for your dad. So you'll be picking it up for NASA and "disposing of it" (putting it on display in your house).

  


The journey to Mars will take fifteen days (you two will be spending your birthday, June 12th, in space. Best present ever.), and you'll be put to sleep for all of them to help keep the probability of complications to zero. Sopor slime is what it's called, some sort of green substance that can keep things frozen in time, pretty much. Kankri helped the Maryams, your team's scientists, work on it, and he's repeatedly told you how it's based off of some immortal frog. You don't know for sure. Usually when he starts moving his mouth, you stop listening. He talks way too much in your opinion.

  


Kankri steps into the pool of green slime without hesitation. You stare at him for a couple moments before looking back to your own tank.

  


"There's no way you're getting me into that. It looks toxic."

  


"I assure you it's safe. We've tested it many of times on multiple people, including myself. It won't harm you." Kankri already looks high, and he slowly sinks fully into the slime. He doesn't reemerge, but you can see him breathing, so that's... somewhat of a relief. You slowly step into the slime.

  


It's... cool, but not cold. And thick, like you're wading through jello. It's got as peculiar medicine smell to it, like that eucalyptus stuff he used to spray in your room at night when you were too congested to breathe. It's a nice, familiar smell. You slowly sit down in it, and place your bare hands in it. It tingles against your skin pleasantly. You wait for a few moments. You feel tingly and high, but you don't see any concerns, so you slide into the slime fully.

  


It seems like it's almost immediately that you are waking up to blaring sirens.

  


You quickly sit up, gasping for air as you emerge from the slime, and, as quickly as you can in your slightly drugged state, stumble out of the tank. Kankri stumbles out next to you, wiping slime away from his eyelids. All but one of the computers are wailing at you, flashing red lights. The one computer not wailing shows that 'today' is June 10th. You've been woken up five days early.

  


Kankri suddenly stumbles to the plexi-glass window that allows you to see outside the ship with a gasp, and begins chattering excitedly- you block him out. You already know everything he could possibly tell you about asteroids or the asteroid belt, or asteroid fields. You took the exact same classes.

  


But then something knocks on the window. You turn to yell at Kankri for being an idiot, there's nothing out there, why are you knocking on the _fucking window at nothing_ , but you stop. There is a mermaid outside your ship.

  


She's got silvery skin, and black hair that blends in with the surrounding void of nothingness, but she has an honest-to-god mermaid tail with pink scales and fins. She has glasses placed neatly on a childish, rounded face, and she flutters her eyes with a soft smile.

  


Space mermaids.

  


You expected human-like aliens, or being completely alone in space with your brother. But no. _MOTHERFUCKING SPACE MERMAIDS_. Kankri is staring with his face smushed against the window in pure, child-like awe. Pinkie (as you've dubbed her) smiles an eerily shark like grin and waves, before pressing a kiss to the glass and giggling.

  


Your attention is brought back to the blaring sirens. You glance at the computers wailing at you for a moment.

  


Your engines are dead.

  


It's not that you ran out of fuel, oh no, you have plenty of fuel for the roundtrip to Mars. They're damaged. Not by an asteroid hitting you though. The computers are telling you that there are entire pieces of the engines removed. Not broken, or ripped out partially, but removed entirely, expertly.

  


Another mermaid (Pinkie #2 is what you're calling this one) darts into the view of the window. She looks exactly like the first Pinkie (who is now Pinkie #1), except older, and more sour. She's covered in scars that look like they're from weaponry of some sort. Her mass of hair is braided back into two, long whips that snake around like tentacles, like they have a mind of her own.

  


Pinkie #2 gives you a full, shark toothed smile and holds up your engine parts, giggling.


End file.
